Metaphor for epiphanies are loaded in the Alchemist. We learned that in our capstone class that there are certain metaphors that authors use to represent a revelation or an epiphany. There is the ladder, lighthouse, tower, mountaintop, and staircase. In the Alchemist the character Santiago has a number of revelations on each leg of his journey. First Santiago climbs the stone wall after he meets the king. He must decide whether to sell his sheep and pursue his personal legend or stay as a Shepard. Santiago must climb the stone wall in order to make his decision. At the top of the wall he overlooks Africa (pg 26). This causes him to make a decision and continue on his personal legend. Without climbing the wall Santiago would have never had his revelation. Next there is the crystal merchant at the top of the hill. After Santiago has had all of his money stolen he walks to around trying to find work. He spots the crystal shop that is vacant and asked the man if he can polish his crystal for food. This initial job ends up being key to Santiago accomplishing his dream. He had to hit bottom in order to walk up the hill and rise up. It took walking up the hill that lead to his new beginning. Without his work at the crystal shop he would have never earned the money and learned the lessons from the merchant that lead to his continuation toward his personal legend. Again the hill represented a new epiphany for Santiago. Lastly, there is the dunes. Santiago finally crosses the desert after years of struggle and he has to cross it during a time of war. This war is just another test he must pass to continue his dream. In the end of his journey Santiago is tired and weary and he climbs this last dune that overlooks the pyramids. Here he has his last revelation. On the top of the dune he gets beaten down, but is told by the thief the true location of his treasure. If Santiago had not gone on that dune he would have never realized his need to go home.
I noticed that every metaphor deals with height. Whether it's a ladder, a mountain, staircase (you get my point) they all deal with climbing up. The Greeks didn't put their heaven on top of Mt. Olympus for no reason. The tower of Babylon was built in order to reach the Christian's heaven. These are all significant in the image of epiphanies. Santiago needed to climb in order to have his revelations. I believe this is due to two reasons. First, everything worth anything takes hard work. The reason the view at the top of a mountain is better is because it took hard work. The act of climbing is an accomplishment when you make it to the top. Usually when a person climbs they become tired and out of breath, reaching the top is empowering. Not only do you experience a beautiful view, but you worked hard and accomplished a goal by making it to the top. Also, I believe that the act of climbing is divine. When at the top of a mountain you feel weightless. The pull of gravity seems to work less. If the majority of the world believes heaven to be in the sky or just up then it makes since that we have epiphanies when we are higher up. Being in a position to overlook the rest of the world, or the continent of Africa, makes one feel powerful, it also gives a person a small feeling of divinity. The Christian God or the Greek's gods were said to look down on their people. It's the same when Santiago climbed the stone wall he looked over Africa, or when he climbed the dunes he looked over the pyramids. This gave him a since of divinity, power, and revelation.
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